INTRODUCTION 



crushed bone mingled with clay. Two specimens considerately collected by 

 Mr. Hatcher illustrate the effect of pressure while they were embedded in 

 their clay matrix. They consisted of those portions of the skulls of the 

 Rhinoceros and the largest Llama, which contained all the molar teeth of both 

 sides preserved in their proper relative position. The skull portions were 

 somewhat distorted and were broken into innumerable fragments, retained in 

 their natural position by the clay matrix. The fangs of the teeth were like- 

 wise crushed, but the crowns were beautifully preserved. The specimens, care- 

 fully removed from their resting-place, were enveloped in moss (Tillandsia), 

 carefully packed, and in this condition sent to the author. On subsequent 

 drying the skull portions actually fell into myriads of fragments, while the 

 teeth are yet complete. 



The texture of the fossils is variable, but mostly the bones and teeth 

 have undergone little change other than the loss of a proportion of the ostein 

 or bone-cartilage. Some are rather friable and chalk-like, but the greater 

 number are hard and firm and brown in color, and permeated with iron oxide. 



So far as relates to the geological relations of the fossils and other 

 circumstances concerning them, the following account has been furnished by 

 Mr. William H. Ball: 



"Attention was first called to these remains in 1883, by Dr. J. C. Neal, of 

 Archer, Alachua County, Florida, who communicated with Professor Baird, 

 and subsequently with the officers of the U. S. Geological Survey, Dr. Leidy, 

 and others. 



"The localities observed by Dr. Neal were: (l) Mixon's farm, ten miles 

 south and one and a half miles east of the railway station at Archer ; (2) 

 Hallowell's place, ten miles north and two miles west of the station ; (3) pond, 

 about a quarter of a mile from the station. Later Dr. Neal reports another, 

 about two miles northwest of Mixon's, on a clay ridge in an old field. While 

 in Gainesville I found some mastodon bones in the hands of a druggist in that 

 town, evidently from a deposit of the same character, which were found on 

 the banks of the Santa Fe River, to the westward of Gainesville, but the exact 

 spot mentioned only as the point where the ' road crosses the river.' In 

 conversation with others, I heard that similar bones had been found one mile 

 north of Gainesville, in digging a ditch through stiff clay for the race of the 

 ' old mill,' on the Newnansville road ; and also near the town in digging 

 another water-way known as ' Owen's ditch.' Clay Landing, on the Suwanee 

 River, near Fort Griffin, is another probable locality. 



